The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A conventional wireless wide area network (“WWAN”) may include a plurality of radio network access nodes. For example, a Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) WWAN may include a plurality of evolved Node Bs (“eNBs”). Each eNB may provide a cell to which a plurality of user equipment (“UE”) devices may wirelessly connect. Collectively, the cells provided by the eNBs (as well as other radio network access nodes such as femto cells) may form a radio access network (“RAN”). In the case of LTE, the RAN may be referred to as an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or “E-UTRAN,” and may interface with an Evolved Packet Core, or “EPC.” eNBs of an E-UTRAN may be in communication with various EPC nodes, such as a mobility management entity (“MME”) and a serving gateway (“S-GW”). The MME may perform a variety of control functions, such as non-access stratum (“NAS”) signaling, idle-mode UE reachability and S-GW assignment. The S-GW may, among other things, route user data packets and act as a local mobility anchor for inter-eNB handover.
A cloud RAN, or “C-RAN,” may operate in a more centralized manner than a traditional WWAN to provide WWAN infrastructure to a plurality of wireless communication devices, such as UE devices. A C-RAN may include a baseband processing pool (“BBU”) to which a plurality of remote radio heads (“RRHs”) may be connected. The BBU may include one or more computing systems configured to perform various control functions that in a traditional WWAN may be controlled by eNBs, MMEs and S-GWs. In some cases, the BBU may include a server farm. Each RRH may provide a cell to which a plurality of UE devices may connect. The cells provided by a plurality of RRHs may collectively form a RAN. In some cases, RRHs may be connected to the BBU via high-bandwidth/low latency means, such as via optical transport. A C-RAN may provide higher spectral efficiency and/or better data services to end users than a traditional WWAN.